Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Mitochondrion

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 4, 2019
29
3
iPhone X running iOS 12.3.1

Hopefully this is correct place to make a thread about this. My iPhone show incorrect unread e-mail count as demonstrated in the screenshots.

IMG_FD97EBA5D5F6-1.jpeg
IMG_5930.PNG


It should show 464 unread e-mail because 105 unread e-mail from Exchange and 359 unread e-mail from Gmail is equal to 464 unread e-mail.

Code:
105 + 359 = 464

Compare this on the Mac.

Screenshot 2019-07-11 at 12.48.04 PM.png
Screenshot 2019-07-11 at 12.48.20 PM.png
Screenshot 2019-07-11 at 1.22.20 PM.png


Mail on the macOS count my unread e-mail correctly. I also noticed there is some inconsistency between iOS and macOS on VIPs unread e-mail count. I have 313 unread VIPs e-mail on iOS whereas I have 259 unread VIPs e-mail on the macOS.

How can I make Mail on iOS and macOS show correct number of unread e-mail?
 

ApfelKuchen

macrumors 601
Aug 28, 2012
4,335
3,012
Between the coasts
"How can I make..."? There's not a setting to adjust this. I can suggest things you can try that may fix things, on the assumption that a counter or pointer needs to be refreshed, but I can't guarantee that any of them will be the fix.

First, is this a consistent problem? Is there always a difference of 3 between the displayed sum for All Inboxes (currently 461) and the sum (currently 464) of the amounts shown for Gmail, Exchange, and iCloud, or does that difference vary?

Judging by the fact that the individual counts for Gmail and Exchange are the same on both Mac and iPhone, it seems both accounts are synchronized to their servers on both devices. Is there any activity at all in iCloud?

One thing to bear in mind is that both All Inboxes and VIP are created within the Mail app, while the individual mailboxes are a reflection of what's on the respective mail servers (assuming the mail accounts are synchronizing properly with the server).

There aren't many things you can do in iOS to try to fix this.

You can try to isolate which account is being mis-counted by toggling-off Mail for one of those accounts, then checking to see if the All Inboxes sum matches the amount shown for the active inboxes. This will also force Mail to recalculate the contents and Unread counts of both All Inboxes and VIP:

1. Go to Settings > Passwords & Accounts > Gmail and toggle-off Mail
2. Return to the Mail app and see if the All Inboxes total matches the sum of the remaining mailboxes (iCloud and Exchange).
3. Return to Settings > Passwords & Accounts > Gmail and toggle-on Mail
4. Return to the Mail app and check the All Mailboxes and VIP totals again (it may take a moment or two for those to update).

You may need to repeat this process for Exchange and iCloud as well.

If that doesn't fix, try a force-quit of the Mail app followed by a restart of the iPhone.

If that still doesn't work you might delete and then re-add each mail account, but that temporarily deletes your mail (and any contacts, calendars, reminders, and notes that may be associated with the accounts) until it re-downloads from the server... not necessarily something you'd want to do for the sake of a simple miscount of unread items.
 

Mitochondrion

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 4, 2019
29
3
I appreciate your suggestions. I could not toggle Gmail and Exchange for some reasons. I had to delete Gmail and when I did, the Mail app correctly counted the number of unread e-mails. It turns out that Gmail is the culprit. Once I added it back, it count the number of unread e-mail incorrectly. This time, the differences is two rather than three.

iCloud is not a problem as I have read all my e-mails from it. Exchange is working fine as intended.

I tried quitting Mail app and restarting the iPhone. It made no differences.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.